Studies in Acts

To be a gospel witness is not only to bring life to those who believe, it is, as well, to "ring the funeral bell of eternal loss" (Ed Clowney) in the ears of those who will not believe.

Our business is not to convert people. We cannot do that. God alone can change a heart or grant faith to folk who are by nature unbelievers. As William Gurnall writes in his classic The Christian in Complete Armour (vol. 2, 574),

"God never laid it upon thee to convert those he sends thee to. No; to publish the gospel is thy duty.... God judgeth not of his servants' work by the success of their labour, but by their faithfulness to deliver his message."

Some believe, many do not. Many remain children of their Father the Devil and enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:18), as unbelievers are described in the New Testament. Indeed, I was arrested by this thought in reading recently in a new biography of John Henry Newman, the famous leader of the Oxford Movement, the Anglican priest and scholar, who converted to Rome in 1845 and, eventually, became a Cardinal. Newman, still in his Anglican period, was commenting on the relative failure of the gospel in the world. This is not what we are used to hearing, not what we are used to thinking. It is the furthest thing from the triumphalist rhetoric that we are treated to from mission organizations, from denominational offices, or from books touting the sure-fire success of some evangelistic approach or another. But, the more I thought about it, the more I had to accept the force of what Newman was saying.

"...Jesus spoke of the Gospel being preached, not chiefly as a means of converting, but as a witness against the world." A realist would have to ask whether the world is not "as unbelieving now as when Christ came," and whether Christians, "except a small remnant," would not, like the Jews, reject Christ if he came again. In spite of all the good influences of Christianity, it has to be admitted that "the great multitude of men have to all appearance remained, in a spiritual point of view, no better than before": the sad fact is that "Human nature remains what it was, though it has been baptized." The "real triumph of the Gospel" has been to raise up a comparatively few 'specimens of faith and holiness, which without it are unknown and impossible" — "It has laboured for the elect, and it has succeeded with them." Most Christians, on the other hand, "would go on almost as they do, neither much better nor much worse, if they believed Christianity to be a fable".... For the ordinary person, "true religion" has a monotonous "sameness" and "plainness," for "it is a weariness to the natural man to serve God humbly and in obscurity." [Ian Ker, John Henry Newman, 99-100]

There is a sense in which that is not true, of course. The spread of the gospel to all the nations is a wonderful and marvelous thing. But think of the percent of Christians in the world and the percent of nominal Christians in the church.

The story of Acts has become the story of the church in the world, the history of the gospel as a savor of both life and death, of eyes being opened and remaining tightly shut and, if the truth be told, at least so far, of more eyes remaining shut than being opened. And the reason for that, as Paul's quotation from Isa. 6 makes clear, is because the history of the church and the gospel in the world is the outworking of a divine decree and plan and purpose that has two sides to it, election and reprobation, the salvation of God's elect and the judgment of the rest. "Many are called, but few are chosen." (That -- Matt. 22:14 -- in the context of the parable of the wedding banquet, a picture of gospel invitation and the response of those invited to the banquet of life.)

1. It is entirely true that in the quotation (in v. 27) the fault for Israel's unbelief is laid directly at her own door. Their heart has become hard and they have closed their eyes. Texts making that point could be multiplied.

2. But, it is also clear, as the second half of v. 27 makes clear, and as the original text in Isa. 6:9-10 makes still clearer, Isaiah's task was "to prevent them from hearing and being saved!" In the MT of Isaiah (Paul is quoting from the LXX) we read, "Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." As a commentator on Isaiah puts it:

Isaiah's message and his task constitute, at first sight, the oddest commission ever given to a prophet: to tell people not to understand and to effect heart-hardening and spiritual blindness! There is, however, no way to evade the plain meaning of the verses. [Wenham, Isaiah, 78]

In other words, God was preventing the salvation of these people as an act of divine judgment against them for their sin and unbelief.

3. But, of course, we are all sinners and unbelievers by nature. We have all offended against God's truth and grace. Paul himself had done so in the most vicious and determined way. But God had saved him, but would not save the Jews as a whole. "Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated." "There is a remnant according to grace."

There is no doubt that the Jews and all who reject the gospel have no one to blame but themselves for the judgment that will come upon them. But lying behind that judgment lies the counsel of God, to save some and harden others (as Paul puts it in Rom. 9).

Pascal wrote, "We understand nothing of the works of God, if we do not take as a principle that he has willed to blind some, and enlighten others." [Pensees, p. 185, #565] Luke has remained faithful throughout his history to the doctrine of divine sovereignty in grace. "As many as were appointed to eternal life believed." "The Lord opened Lydia's heart to respond to Paul's message." And many other statements. And now he ends his book with a confession that "salvation is of the Lord." He was Paul's true disciple, Luke was.

Are there difficulties here. Of course. Any doctrine that has so bitterly divided Christians from one another must have its difficulties. Is the teaching of the Bible clear nevertheless. Yes, it is clear, like it or not. God is working his purposes out, even in the salvation and damnation of men.

And what may we take away from this?

1. Not to trifle with the gospel as if it were in our hands to be saved or not. "Seek the Lord while he may be found..." Look to him for salvation. If you feel that you must suspend your judgment until all of God's ways are clear to you, then you will be last seen falling away into judgment still straining to untie some particular knot.

2. Remember, even if you had reason to believe in advance that God was not going to save you (Lord Byron said that while Calvinism is true, he couldn't accept it), you should still be glad that some were shown mercy, remembering that you would get nothing more nor less than you deserved, you were deprived of nothing, you got your due. But, of course, you have no such reason. If you are willing to believe that God is God, then turn to him and plead with him for grace you do not deserve. Did the Lord not say, "he who comes to me, I will never drive away"?

3. And for those of us who are saved the sovereign grace of God and the fewness of those who are saved, should leave us amazed, trembling, breathless! Think about it!

4. And, finally, in regard to those doubts, those concerns that are left when we walk away from this fact that God has made decisions about salvation that leave us baffled, confused, and worried. Why does he not save more? Why does he count one man's sins against him and not another's? The mystery of love.

But, remember this always. Would you not rather have this issue be decided by God, by the perfectly wise, just, and good God? Would you rather have these more terrible of decisions kept in his hands? Is it not a comfort and consolation to you that your heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sent his son into the world to suffer and die for the salvation of his people, should be the one making the decision as to who will live and who will die? I don't presume to be able to explain the counsel of the living God to you or to understand it myself. But it comforts me immensely to be able to say with such perfect confidence about this too: the Judge of all the earth does right!